System and method for extending range and coverage of bandwidth intensive wireless data streams

ABSTRACT

A wireless networking system is disclosed. The system includes a first wireless access point having a first coverage area. The first wireless access point includes a first wireless transceiver to access a wireless network and a second wireless transceiver coupled to the first wireless transceiver. A second wireless access point has a second coverage area. The second wireless access point includes a third wireless transceiver for establishing a wireless link with the second wireless transceiver, and a fourth wireless transceiver coupled to the third wireless transceiver to provide user access to the wireless link. User access to the wireless link accesses the wireless network via the second and first wireless transceivers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/897,219, filed Oct. 30, 2013, and U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/897,216, filed Oct. 30, 2013,both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure herein relates to wireless networks, and morespecifically to high-bandwidth wireless networks for distributingmulti-media content.

BACKGROUND

Wireless networks may take many forms, depending on the application.Various WiFi standards exist where users within range of a “hotspot” mayestablish a wireless link to access a given network. A given hotspot, orwireless access point, typically has a limited range and coverage area.

With the proliferation of multi-media content over wireless networkscomes an insatiable demand for more bandwidth over the networks.Conventional wireless networking architectures fail to provide adequateresources to efficiently provide optimum range and coverage for wirelessnetwork users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the disclosure are illustrated by way of example, and notby way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and inwhich like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a system for wirelessly extendingrange of a wireless network linearly from one access point to another.

FIG. 2 illustrates a wireless management system that utilizes a virtualMAC and virtual PHY to wirelessly and adaptively manage and controlmultiple radios in a given wireless access point.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of steps for one embodiment of a methodof wirelessly accessing a wireless network, consistent with the systemsshown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4A-4C illustrate embodiments of a system for wirelessly extendingrange of a wireless network radially from one access point to otheraccess points.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of multiple wireless managementsystems that cooperate to allocate transceiver resources between users.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of wireless networking systems, wireless transceivers andassociated methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a wirelessnetworking system is disclosed. The system includes a first wirelessaccess point having a first coverage area. The first wireless accesspoint includes a first wireless transceiver to access a wireless networkand a second wireless transceiver coupled to the first wirelesstransceiver. A second wireless access point has a second coverage area.The second wireless access point includes a third wireless transceiverfor establishing a wireless link with the second wireless transceiver,and a fourth wireless transceiver coupled to the third wirelesstransceiver to provide user access to the wireless link. User access tothe wireless link accesses the wireless network via the second and firstwireless transceivers.

In a further embodiment, a method of providing wireless network accessto a user is disclosed. The method includes accessing a wireless networkwith a first wireless transceiver associated with a first wirelessaccess point. The first wireless access point has a first coverage areabounded by a range of a first broadcast transceiver associated with thefirst wireless access point. Wireless access to the wireless network isenabled within the first coverage area with the first broadcasttransceiver. A wireless link is established between the first wirelessaccess point and a third wireless transceiver associated with a secondwireless access point. The second wireless access point has a secondcoverage area bounded by a fourth wireless transceiver. The fourthwireless transceiver is in communication with the third wirelesstransceiver. Access to the wireless network from within the secondcoverage area is enabled via the fourth wireless transceiver.

In yet another embodiment, a wireless access point for use in a wirelessnetworking system, the wireless access point includes a first wirelesstransceiver to establish a wireless link to a wireless network. A secondwireless transceiver provides wireless access to the wireless linkwithin a first coverage area. A third wireless transceiver establishes awireless link to a second wireless access point. Processing logiccontrols each of the first, second and third wireless transceivers.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of a wireless networking system isshown, generally designated 100, that increases the range of wirelessnetwork access. The wireless networking system 100 includes multiplewireless access points, or nodes, 102A-102E. The nodes may be positionedlinearly, such as in serial or wirelessly daisy-chained arrangement, tolinearly extend wireless network access across multiple access pointcoverage zones. A similar embodiment that extends coverage radially isdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 4A-4C.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, for one specific embodiment, node102A includes multiple radios A1 and A2. Radio A1 is configured as areceiver/transmitter (transceiver) that exhibits a wireless transceiverrange, denoted by the circle at 104, to receive and transmit signals toa network, such as the Internet 105. Note that for purposes of clarity,each node is shown in FIG. 1 as having a range defined by the range ofone of the radios. Radio A1, while acting as a receiver/transmitter(often referred to herein as a transceiver) is also able to broadcastand receive signals within its coverage area to users that are in thearea 104, thereby serving as a wireless access point for that area. UserU1 thus may access the Internet via radio A1. Radio A1 also communicateswith a relay radio A2, which may be disposed near the periphery of therange 104 of radio A1. Relay radio A2 has a similar range as radio A1,and is able to communicate with radio B1 that is associated with node102B. For some embodiments, the relay radio (such as radio A2) for agiven node is assigned to one or more dedicated transceivers (such asB1) associated with respective adjacent nodes. Additionally, in general,the transceivers of a given node can communicate to any of thetransceivers available in adjacent nodes.

Further referring to FIG. 1, node 102B includes three radios, one toestablish communication with radio A2 of node 102A, a second radio B2 toact as a relay to a third node 102C, and a third radio B3 to act as awireless access point to a second user U2 within the node 102B. Thethird node 102C includes a first radio C1 to communicate with the secondradio B2 of the second node 102B, and a second radio C2 to providewireless access to a third user U3 within the access coverage area ofthe third node 102C. Thus, with communication links established from theInternet to radio A1, to radio A2, to radio B1 to radio B2 to radio C1and to radio C2, the user U3 is able to access the Internet wirelesslyeven though the distance between the user U3 to the first wirelessaccess point A1 exceeds the coverage or range of radio A1.

Each node 102A-102C described above, may be configured differentlydepending on the available resources and bandwidth demands. Thus, agiven radio may handle multiple tasks to receive and broadcastsimultaneously, if the bandwidth demands are relatively low, or handle asingle task, such as relay radio A2, if the bandwidth demandnecessitates the need for additional wireless transceiver resources.

To manage the allocation and configuration of wireless transceiverresources, each node employs a management system, such as one embodimentshown in FIG. 2, and generally designated 200. The management systemsfor multiple nodes thus forms distributed logic that cooperate toefficiently manage bandwidth utilization for users. Further details ofthe management system for a variety of applications are disclosed incopending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, titled METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR PROCESSING BANDWIDTH INTENSIVE DATA STREAMS USING VIRTUALMEDIA ACCESS CONTROL AND PHYSICAL LAYERS, filed Oct. 29, 2014, andexpressly incorporated herein by reference.

Further referring to FIG. 2, one specific embodiment of the managementsystem 200, is shown in a networking “layer” context. Generallyspeaking, the wireless management system may be configured for couplingan available transceiver resource to a WiFi network, a mobile wirelessnetwork, or a combination of the two. The management system 200 includesan application layer “APP”, at 202, with one or more data-intensivesoftware applications “APP A”-“APP D.” The individual applications, forexample, may have different peak bandwidth requirements in terms of datatransfer rates. Thus, for instance, application APP A may have a peakbandwidth requirement of 450 Megabits per second (Mbps), whileapplication APP D may have a peak bandwidth requirement of 750 Mbps.

Further referring to FIG. 2, the application layer 202 cooperates with aprocess layer, at 204. The process layer includes a decision block 206that interfaces with a processing block 208. The decision blockdetermines the size and type of data stream being received, and the typeof processing necessary to put the stream in a format where it iscapable of being transmitted. The processing block processes the datastream as determined by the decision block, and couples to anultra-streaming block 210. The ultra-streaming block manages theprocessing of signal streams or sub-streams given the availableresources (memory, processing speed, number of available radios, etc.),and packetizes sufficiently processed streams or sub-streams. Theultra-streaming block feeds data to and from an RF block 212. While notexplicitly shown in FIG. 2, the ultra-streaming block carries out amonitoring function, more fully described below, that feeds backwireless resource availability to the decision block 206. Various waysfor determining availability of resources include common memory, hostinterfaces, common threads, and/or queues or other data structures.

The decision block 206, processing block 208 and ultra-streaming block210 together form a virtual MAC layer 211. The RF block 212 forms avirtual PHY layer. The virtual MAC and PHY layers enable simultaneousallocation of multiple PHY resources for different signal typesassociated with different applications. Transceiver configurations maybe applied at initialization of the system, periodically during normaloperation, or randomly on demand during operation. As a result, the mostefficient path for wireless access between a given user and the wirelessnetwork is paved. The wireless networking system 200 thus exhibitssignificant performance improvements and efficiency advantages.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the wireless management system 200includes an actual media access control (MAC) layer, at 214, and anactual physical (PHY) layer, at 216. The actual MAC layer 214 generallyincludes software resources capable of controlling one or moretransceiver resources 218 that are at the actual PHY layer, such asvarious radios and receivers. The actual PHY layer 216 may includemultiple transceiver resources corresponding to multiple radios, eachwith an actual data transfer capability, or bandwidth.

The actual PHY layer transceivers may transmit and receive dataconsistent with a variety of signal protocols, such as High DefinitionMultimedia Interface (HDMI) consistent with the IEEE 802.11 Standard,Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO), standard Wi-Fi physical control layer(PHY) and Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and existing IP protocols.Additionally, extremely high bandwidth applications such as Voice OverIP (VOIP), streaming audio and video content, multicast applications,convergent and ad-hoc network environment may employ signal protocolsconsistent with the wireless network system described herein.Additionally, the wireless management system may be employed and/orembedded into a variety of electronic devices, including wireless accesspoints, base stations, handhelds, tablets, computers, telephones,televisions, DVD players, BluRay players, media players, storagedevices, or any such devices that use wireless networks to send andreceive data including stand-alone add-on devices such as “dongles” thatserve as wireless interfaces between devices.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart that shows generic steps carried outduring operation of the wireless networking system of FIG. 1. At 302,the first node 102A (FIG. 1) accesses a wireless network, such as theInternet 105, with a first radio or transceiver A1. A second transceiverA2, establishes a wireless link with the first transceiver A1, at 304.The second transceiver may then act as a relay to establish a furtherlink with a radio in a different node, such as radio B1 in node 102B.The wireless network may then be accessed through the different node102B via the wireless link (between radios B1 and A2) and the firstaccess point, at 306. By employing a plurality of transceivers at eachof the nodes that run the UltraStreaming engine to allocate theiravailable resources, either at initialization as configurable, or whilein operation periodically, or dynamically in random demand while inoperation, the most efficient path for wireless access is accomplished.This results in increased range and coverage for a given wirelessnetwork, and it's Internet access.

FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate a further embodiment of a wireless networkingsystem, generally designated 400, that is similar to the system of FIG.1, but configured with various nodes 402A-402G that are positioned in arelative manner to extend coverage radially, rather than linearly. Eachof the nodes includes a wireless management system, such as that shownin FIG. 2 and described above.

Further referring to FIG. 4A, a first node 402A includes radios A1-A7,with radio A1 acting as an originating access point for a local networksignal, such as the Internet. The remaining radios A2-A7 may then beconfigured to communicate with specified adjacent nodes. The adjacentnodes have respective coverage zones that overlap the primary node 402Aradially outwardly. Thus, by encircling the primary node with the othernodes, the corresponding coverage area may be increased dramatically.

FIG. 4B illustrates one configuration where radio A1 acts as theoriginating radio to communicate with the local wireless network, andradio A2 communicates the network signal as a relay with radios B2 andC2, of nodes 102B and 102C. Radios B1 and C1 of each respective nodebroadcast wireless access to users within the respective coverage zones,bounded by 404 and 406 of each respective node. Similar arrangements aremanaged with radio A3 communicating with radios D2 and E2, and radios A4and A5 communicating with F2 and G2, respectively. To optimize coverageradially, the nodes 102B-102G are positioned radially around the primarynode 102A in a honeycomb structure. The resulting coverage boundary,represented by the circle 408, is significantly larger than theoriginating access coverage area provided by the broadcast radioassociated with node 402A by itself.

FIG. 4C illustrates different assignments of the radios in the wirelessnetworking system of FIG. 4A managed by the wireless management system200 of each node 102A-102G. The assignments and radio configurations maybe defined and managed during an initialization process, periodicallyduring operation, or randomly on demand depending on the bandwidthdemands of the system. Thus, if bandwidth demands are higher in nodes402B and 402C, then instead of sharing the bandwidth of radio A2 withnodes 102B (radio B2) and 402C (radio C2), such as the arrangement ofFIG. 4B, dedicated relay radios A2 and A3 may be assigned to each ofthose nodes so that maximum bandwidth may be provided to each, resultingin radio A2 communicating with radio B2 and radio A3 communicating withradio C2 (FIG. 4C).

For some embodiments, whether the wireless networking system isconfigured as a linear or radial architecture, there may be multipletransceivers assigned to a wireless node, and each node may havemultiple transceivers assigned to a given user. FIG. 5 illustrates howmultiple wireless management systems cooperate to efficiently allocatetransceiver resources in such a situation. A first node managementsystem 502 may control transceiver resources A1 and A2 within a firstnode. A second management system 504 may control transceiver resourcesB1, B2, and B3. The management systems 502 and 504 communicate with eachother to determine the optimal resource allocation to service respectivelocal users, at 508 and 510.

Thus, for the example shown in FIG. 5, the first local user 508 withinthe coverage of the first node may need bandwidth that may besufficiently provided by transceiver A1 alone. The second local user510, positioned within the vicinity of both the first and second nodes,may be assigned transceiver A2 from the first node, and transceiver B2from the second node, thereby having access to twice the bandwidth.Other examples may involve partial transceiver allocations, where aportion of the transceiver bandwidth is allocated to a first user, and asecond portion of the bandwidth allocated to a second user.

In some embodiments, a given wireless link may be configured as avariable duplex link. Each wireless management system may task thevirtual MAC and virtual PHY to control respective transmit and receivecycles for one or more of the wireless transceivers. Varying thetransmit and/or receive times may be accomplished in various ways, suchas through programmable buffer resources and/or through programmabletransmit and receive times. Further detail of such a variable duplexwireless link may be found in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No.______, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING BANDWIDTH INTENSIVEDATA STREAMS USING VIRTUAL MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL AND PHYSICAL LAYERS,filed Oct. 29, 2014, and expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments describedabove enable efficient wireless access to wireless networking systems byusers that might be outside the range of a single wireless access point.By employing linear and/or radial wireless access system architectures,and configuring available wireless transceiver resources optimallywithin each node, a given wireless network may be accessed with greaterbandwidth and more efficiently.

When received within a computer system via one or more computer-readablemedia, such data and/or instruction-based expressions of the abovedescribed circuits may be processed by a processing entity (e.g., one ormore processors) within the computer system in conjunction withexecution of one or more other computer programs including, withoutlimitation, net-list generation programs, place and route programs andthe like, to generate a representation or image of a physicalmanifestation of such circuits. Such representation or image maythereafter be used in device fabrication, for example, by enablinggeneration of one or more masks that are used to form various componentsof the circuits in a device fabrication process.

In the foregoing description and in the accompanying drawings, specificterminology and drawing symbols have been set forth to provide athorough understanding of the present invention. In some instances, theterminology and symbols may imply specific details that are not requiredto practice the invention. For example, any of the specific numbers ofbits, signal path widths, signaling or operating frequencies, componentcircuits or devices and the like may be different from those describedabove in alternative embodiments. Also, the interconnection betweencircuit elements or circuit blocks shown or described as multi-conductorsignal links may alternatively be single-conductor signal links, andsingle conductor signal links may alternatively be multi-conductorsignal links. Signals and signaling paths shown or described as beingsingle-ended may also be differential, and vice-versa. Similarly,signals described or depicted as having active-high or active-low logiclevels may have opposite logic levels in alternative embodiments.Component circuitry within integrated circuit devices may be implementedusing metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) technology, bipolar technology orany other technology in which logical and analog circuits may beimplemented. With respect to terminology, a signal is said to be“asserted” when the signal is driven to a low or high logic state (orcharged to a high logic state or discharged to a low logic state) toindicate a particular condition. Conversely, a signal is said to be“deasserted” to indicate that the signal is driven (or charged ordischarged) to a state other than the asserted state (including a highor low logic state, or the floating state that may occur when the signaldriving circuit is transitioned to a high impedance condition, such asan open drain or open collector condition). A signal driving circuit issaid to “output” a signal to a signal receiving circuit when the signaldriving circuit asserts (or deasserts, if explicitly stated or indicatedby context) the signal on a signal line coupled between the signaldriving and signal receiving circuits. A signal line is said to be“activated” when a signal is asserted on the signal line, and“deactivated” when the signal is deasserted. Additionally, the prefixsymbol “/” attached to signal names indicates that the signal is anactive low signal (i.e., the asserted state is a logic low state). Aline over a signal name (e.g., ‘ <signal name>’) is also used toindicate an active low signal. The term “coupled” is used herein toexpress a direct connection as well as a connection through one or moreintervening circuits or structures. Integrated circuit device“programming” may include, for example and without limitation, loading acontrol value into a register or other storage circuit within the devicein response to a host instruction and thus controlling an operationalaspect of the device, establishing a device configuration or controllingan operational aspect of the device through a one-time programmingoperation (e.g., blowing fuses within a configuration circuit duringdevice production), and/or connecting one or more selected pins or othercontact structures of the device to reference voltage lines (alsoreferred to as strapping) to establish a particular device configurationor operation aspect of the device. The term “exemplary” is used toexpress an example, not a preference or requirement.

While the invention has been described with reference to specificembodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made thereto without departing from the broader spiritand scope of the invention. For example, features or aspects of any ofthe embodiments may be applied, at least where practicable, incombination with any other of the embodiments or in place of counterpartfeatures or aspects thereof. Accordingly, the specification and drawingsare to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

We claim:
 1. A wireless networking system comprising: a first wirelessaccess point having a first coverage area, the first wireless accesspoint including a first wireless transceiver to access a wirelessnetwork and a second wireless transceiver coupled to the first wirelesstransceiver; a second wireless access point having a second coveragearea, the second wireless access point including a third wirelesstransceiver for establishing a wireless link with the second wirelesstransceiver, and a fourth wireless transceiver coupled to the thirdwireless transceiver to provide a first user access to the wirelesslink; wherein the first user accesses the wireless network via thewireless link and the second and first wireless transceivers.
 2. Thewireless networking system according to claim 1, wherein each of thewireless access points includes processing logic to control eachwireless transceiver.
 3. The wireless networking system according toclaim 2, wherein the processing logic configures actual wirelesstransceiver resources via respective virtual MAC and virtual PHY layersdisposed between an application layer and actual MAC and PHY layers. 4.The wireless networking system according to claim 3, wherein theconfiguring is carried out during at least one of an initializationprocess, periodically during normal operation, or randomly on demand. 5.The wireless networking system according to claim 1, further including athird wireless access point having a third coverage area, the thirdwireless access point having a fifth wireless transceiver forestablishing a second wireless link with one of the second or fourthwireless transceivers, and a sixth wireless transceiver for providinguser access to the wireless network via the second wireless link.
 6. Thewireless networking system according to claim 5, wherein the first,second and third wireless access points are linearly coupled to extendwireless access to the wireless network from the first access point tothe third access point.
 7. The wireless networking system according toclaim 6, wherein the first coverage area does not overlap the thirdcoverage area.
 8. The wireless networking system according to claim 5,wherein the second and third wireless access points are radially coupledto the first access point to extend wireless access coverage to thewireless network within the first access point, the second access point,and the third access point.
 9. The wireless networking system accordingto claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the first coverage areaoverlaps the third coverage area.
 10. The wireless networking systemaccording to claim 8, wherein the second and third wireless accesspoints lie in an arc radially disposed around the first access point,and wherein the first, second and third access points form a portion ofa honeycomb configuration.
 11. The wireless networking system accordingto claim 1, wherein a second user is within the first and secondcoverage areas, and accesses the network wirelessly through at least onetransceiver resource associated with the first wireless access point andat least one transceiver resource associated with the second wirelessaccess point.
 12. A method of providing wireless network access to auser, the method comprising: accessing a wireless network with a firstwireless transceiver associated with a first wireless access point, thefirst wireless access point having a first coverage area bounded by arange of a first broadcast transceiver associated with the firstwireless access point; enabling wireless access to the wireless networkwithin the first coverage area with the first broadcast transceiver;establishing a wireless link between the first wireless access point anda third wireless transceiver associated with a second wireless accesspoint, the second wireless access point having a second coverage areabounded by a fourth wireless transceiver, the fourth wirelesstransceiver in communication with the third wireless transceiver; andenabling access to the wireless network for a first user within thesecond coverage area via the fourth wireless transceiver.
 13. The methodof claim 12, further comprising: enabling access to the wireless networkvia a fifth wireless transceiver associated with a third wireless accesspoint.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the enabling access to thewireless network via the fifth wireless transceiver comprises: seriallycoupling the third wireless access point to the second wireless accesspoint to establish a second wireless link between the fifth wirelesstransceiver and the fourth wireless transceiver.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein the enabling access to the wireless network via the fifthwireless transceiver comprises: radially coupling the third wirelessaccess point to the first wireless access point to establish a secondwireless link between the fifth wireless transceiver and the secondwireless transceiver.
 16. The method of claim 12, further comprisingallocating wireless link assignments between the first, second, thirdand fourth transceivers with a wireless management system.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the allocating is performed during at leastone of an initialization process, periodically during normal operation,or randomly on demand.
 18. A wireless access point for use in a wirelessnetworking system, the wireless access point comprising: a firstwireless transceiver to establish a wireless link to a wireless network;a second wireless transceiver to provide wireless access to the wirelesslink within a first coverage area; a third wireless transceiver toestablish a wireless link to a second wireless access point; andprocessing logic to control each of the first, second and third wirelesstransceivers.
 19. The wireless access point of claim 18, wherein: theprocessing logic configures actual radio resources via respectivevirtual MAC and virtual PHY layers disposed between an application layerand actual MAC and PHY layers.
 20. The wireless access point of claim19, wherein the configuring is carried out during at least one of aninitialization process, periodically during normal operation, orrandomly on demand.